Job Cohen: a free zone.. "not possible anymore" ("dat kan hier niet meer")

At a drink in June of University of Amsterdam entrepreneurs and the presentation of some business research, I met Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen. I talked to him about the Georgia Free Industrial Zone (FIZ) project I am involved in. Just returning from Georgia after a meeting with PM, Lado Gurgendidze, old ABNAMRO banker from London, the subject was very top of mind for me.

In response to my enthusiastic words about the FIZ-developments in Georgia, Job Cohen said simply: "Yes, all of that is not possible here anymore" ("Ja, dat kan hier allemaal niet meer"). That one simple sentence embodied a world of unwill and unability:
- his worker's party (PvdA) who wanted Work, Work, Work, but has never developed a serious set of entrepreneurial policies
- Amsterdam is so embedded in laws and rules from the Hague and Europe that a tax exempt would raise a lot of legal issues
- at that time the economies of NL and the EU were still running well. So, there would be no political will. To the contrary: the political European wind was blowing in the direction of putting pressure on countries or overseas territories with tax exempts. The Dutch Antilles, for example, abolished their 0% profit tax regime, and re-introduced it under the label of an EU-compliant "E-zone" with a 2% profit tax law. From that moment on, the system lost all its attraction and introduced to many bookkeeping distractions for enterpreneurs and global corporations.

I'm interested to check if the global financial crisis and subsequent Recession has made some holy cows move on in the worker's party and other parties.

It is very interesting to notice how quickly a good open content solution is adopted. Open ICEcat is an open catalog, supported by some 160 top manufacturers already, and available in 22 languages. It already facilitates between 20 million and 32 million datasheet downloads per month from merchants (resellers, retailers, distributors), other channel partners, and end-users.

It is very competitive. In Europe, it very regularly results in conversions from Cnet to ICEcat. A free and open solution is very competitive, and qualitatively good as the manufacturer is included in the quality loop. Also the service level is high: solving issues within one business day. The additional coverage guarantees are very convincing for A-level clients.

It's the objective to convince all (interesting) brands to provide their content via the open catalog. Why? It results in a seamless distribution of the official product content. It is good for the brand: in this way the channel displays the product's original content and often without any omissions. Some brands still feel the fear that their traditional retailers will complain if they provide product content to online resellers. This is actually never or hardly ever the case: if there are complaints it is about low prices not the availability of good product content.

Free Zone in Tbilisi, Georgia (GE)

In June, I met Lado Gurgenidze. At that time the prime minister of Georgia. We talked about our idea for setting up an ecommerce free industrial zone (FIZ) in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. When I expressed some worries about the continuous hostilities around South-Ossetia and Abchazia, he said: "Do you really think that the Russians will bomb your hosting center?". He meant this question, rhetorically, expecting "No, of course not" as an answer.
But, I surprised him: "Yes, I said. Of course, they will".

In August, there was the outbreak of war. A five days-war. But, it looks like Shaakasvilli having started the large-scale attack on Tshkinvali. Probably in panic, in expectation of a Russian attack. It is clear that there have been many provocations from the South-Ossetian side.

After calm had been restored, I continued discussions. With Bagebey City Group/Lilo1, we agreed on a co-operation. They have the needed 10 hectare of land, and near the airport. An interesting location.

More partners showed their interest: Ernts & Young, MKD Law, Deloitte, PWC, DLA Piper, Société Generale (Bank Republic), HSBC, Cartu Bank, and many more businesses. A meeting in November with the Ministry of Economic Affairs clarified some of the soft criteria.

As the Rakeen Group still does not have a FIZ license for Poti (they bought out the government completely, except for a golden share), I am wondering what the government policy will be. Are they still so eager to continue with FIZs? The general tax regime is improving significantly every year: profit repatriation taxes will be completely abolished in 2012. The profit tax is lowered from 20% to 15%. As profit tax accounts for only 10% of the state budget, and the general trend in the west is to lower this tax, will Georgia hit the 0% level in a few years time? If so, will it still make sense to invest in a separate FIZ?

2008: a year of break-throughs

2008, was a dramatic year. Not only for the world economy, but also in a very positive sense for our incubator iMerge.

In March, we sold our fist ecommerce venture TakeitNow.com to Aces Direct for a very interesting price.

In October, we won a lawsuit against Google to disclose the contents of a Gmail box used as a spy-account. See the press release. See also: information week and Dutch newspaper NRC.

In November, a co-operation between US-based Quotewerks.com and our open catalog-daughter ICEcat was launched. See the press release. A break-through for the Open Catalog principle (Open ICEcat) in the #1 ecommerce market.
In November, we were also able to buy-out one shareholder from iMerge.